This is a story about how two lovers parted their ways.

1. LEONOR RIVERA AND RIZAL
A BITTERSWEET STORY

2. OVERVIEW
Leonor Rivera was born in 1867. They met at her
father Antonio Rivera’s boarding house in
Sampaloc, Manila, where Rizal stayed while a
student at the University of Santo Tomas.
Leonor was studying at La Concordia and one of
Rizal’s sisters was her classmate.

3. RIZAL LEFT
When Rizal left for Europe, their courtship could
not withstand the distance and family pressure.
Her mother, Silvestra, intercepted love letters
between the two. Rizal thought Leonor had
forgotten him. Leonor was heartbroken that Jose
had a change of heart.

4. THE SHATTERED HEART
Leonor chose instead to marry Charles Kipping,
an Englishman. On the eve of her wedding, she
found out about the love letters from Rizal
intercepted by her mother. A frustrated and hurt
Leonor tore up the letters and burned them. But
the memory of Rizal lingered in the ashes she
chose to keep inside a hand-carved wooden box
marked with the initials “J and L.”

5. WEDDING TO A STRANGER
Leonor sewed some torn letters into her wedding
dress’ hemline. It was the dress she wore to
marry Charles. Her mother described the
wedding gown as “a lovely Filipina dress, with a
white embroidered camisa of jusi, a pretty
panuelo , a long skirt in light ash blue, with
scalloped embroidery in front and a long ornate
train of the same hue in the back.”

6. A PRECIOUS GIFT
Leonor Rivera's jewelry box where she kept
mementos, Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere" signed and
a gift to Leonor.

7. THE SILENT ENDING
After marriage to Kipping, Leonor vowed never
to play the piano again. The ivory keys where her
delicate long fingers danced around were silent
for a long time.
Credits to:
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/leo
nor-rivera-a-heros-sweetheart